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Dan Carter rates his own performance in first rugby game on NZ soil since 2015

Dan Carter of Southbridge charges forward during the Ellesmere Premier Competition match between Southbridge RFC and West Melton RFC (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks five-eighth Dan Carter gave himself a pass mark after his first game of rugby in New Zealand since 2015, but was not expecting to make a marketers’ dream debut for the Blues next week against the Crusaders.

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Carter surprisingly joined the Blues last month for Super Rugby Aotearoa but said he would need a few weeks to get up to speed and took his first tentative steps back on Saturday, playing for boyhood club Southbridge in a Canterbury club match.

“If anyone saw that game today, I’d say myself that I’m a bit rusty,” Carter told reporters after he kicked six conversions and had a hand in two tries in Southbridge’s 54-14 victory over West Melton.

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DC’s rates his return to NZ rugby:

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DC’s rates his return to NZ rugby:

“It’s good to make the first step in to potentially playing again. I’m not sure if I could play at Super Rugby level just yet. You leave those kinds of decisions up to the coaches.”

A three-times World Player of the Year and World Cup winner in 2011 and 2015, Carter spent his entire professional car eer in New Zealand playing for the Christchurch-based Crusaders.

He joined the Blues after stints in France and Japan, but has not played since February after Japan’s Top League was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He has also barely played in the past 18 months after undergoing neck surgery in 2019.

While many Crusaders fans good-naturedly considered his joining their bitter rivals the Blues as treasonable, there were hopes he might make his Super Rugby Aotearoa debut for the Blues next week in Christchurch.

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“Whether I play or not, I’m not too worried,” Carter added after he played the entire 80 minutes on Saturday.

“I’ll leave that decision to (coach) Leon (MacDonald) and the selectors up at the Blues.”

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cnw 21 minutes ago
‘The All Blacks may not win next year’s World Cup but at least they have been better set up to succeed’

I think it will be a war between two philosophies of rugby. One based on based on programmatic powered structured rugby eg Boks, England, Ireland, Italy, and Aussie. Sometimes these will be based around the set piece, box kick and repeated formulaic ruck play combined with lightening strikes once the defence starts to fissure. (PS I dont buy into the theory that Brown ball is radically altering this - the anchor remains dominance through structured power) The other is based on sowing chaos with multiple high intensity attacking and defensive raids - not allowing the oppostion to establish a beachhead or base from which to strike, while maximising readiness to breach the defensive line en masse eg France, Scotland, Argentina, and Rennie’s ABs. If the ABs lose to Aussie and go down the other side of the draw, I cannot see Aussie going past the Boks - Boks structured power beats Aussie structured power. Too hard to pick if Boks power beats French chaos. But down the otherside AB chaos should be too much for England and Irish structured power, and for Argentinian chaos. If the ABs beat the Aussies, they will have had a poor build up to that point - odds must be against them beating the Boks power and struggling against the French. Ironically however if they lose to Aussie they will be primed for the final against the Boks or France.

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